Teen charged in terror threat (updated)

A teenager was arraigned Friday morning on charges she threatened to blow up the Boces F. Donald Myers Education Center on Henning Road, police said.

Riley J. Older, 16, of Greenfield Center, was arrested on a warrant Friday morning and charged with the felony of making a terroristic threat, according to Saratoga Springs police. Older on Wednesday told a teacher and students that she was going to blow up the school, Lt. Robert Jillson said. She was released after her arraignment, according to police.

A person is guilty of making a terroristic threat when they intend to intimidate or coerce a population or causes fear by threatening to commit a specified offense, according to the New York State penal code. Persons can be charged with the crime even they “did not have the intent or capability of committing the specified offense,” or make the threat to a person who is not the subject of the threat, the code states.

Jillson said police officers went to the school to investigate what occurred. The police department consulted with Saratoga County District Attorney James A. Murphy III before the arrest, Jillson said.

“Any threat against a school filled with schoolchildren is taken seriously by law enforcement,” Murphy said in a statement. “Based on her alleged threats, the terroristic threat is an appropriate charge given her age and the possibility that she has mental health issues. We will proceed cautiously and have a psychiatrist evaluate her.”

In April of 2012, authorities charged Brent Dickinson, 33, of Saratoga Springs, with making a terroristic threat after he wrote on the White House website’s comment board from a computer at the Saratoga Springs Library that he was going to enter a school, take children hostage and kill them. Police said Dickinson, who lived at the Gateway Motel on Maple Avenue, visited local schools before his arrest. County Judge Jerry

Scarano sentenced Dickinson to 1 to 3 years in prison for pleading guilty to the felony count.

First version:

A teenager was arraigned Friday morning on charges she threatened to blow up the Boces F. Donald Myers Education Center on Henning Road, police said.

Riley J. Older, 16, of Greenfield Center, was arrested on a warrant Friday morning and charged with the felony of making a terroristic threat, according to Saratoga Springs police. Older on Wednesday told a teacher and students that she was going to blow up the school, Lt. Robert Jillson said. She was released after her arraignment, Jillson said.

A person is guilty of making a terroristic threat when they intend to intimidate or coerce a population or causes fear by threatening to commit a specified offense, according to the New York State penal code. “It shall be no defense to a prosecution pursuant to this section that the defendant did not have the intent or capability of committing the specified offense, or that the threat was not made to a person who was a subject,” the code states.

10 Responses

Kids must threaten to do this to their schools hundreds of times a day across the country. It is either an outburst associated with the “I hate school” phase of growing up or the “I am tired of Mr/Ms so-and-so’s class!” lament” To associate such an outburst with an act of “terrorism”, which this article implies via the definition given, is a real stretch in this reader’s opinion. The fact that I am reading this definition is more cause for concern than the acts of a brainless, mouthy teenager. It must be all the free hardware the Feds are passing out to the locals to deploy on the streets of our municipalities rather than on the front lines in the places where real terrorism exists.

I am reminded of http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/Fighter_jet . Also, what a sad crime to charge a child with. Saratoga PD must be bored senseless. I guess it’s possible that this kid is some kind of jerk they’ve been having problems with but this is definitely an over-the-top response. While I’m at it, I’ll mention that it doesn’t look like all this “security” is working[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/despite-increased-security-school-shootings-continue/].

I’m actually in agreement with hawkny on this one. I believe that this is nothing more than the BOCES school using the police to handle a “problem” student for them rather than using in-school discipline. It’s rather telling that the Saratoga Springs Police consulted with the District Attorneys Office prior to making an arrest instead of just sending the student to a 9.39 MHL (Mental Health Law) facility for an evaluation with a psychiatrist.

I’m willing to bet that the school’s goal was have this student, who is sixteen years of age, charged as an adult so that they can request a stay away/no contact order of protection from the judge. This would prevent the student from attending that particular school till the order of protection expires. In the end the school doesn’t have to worry about having to use their resources to suspend/expel the student from their program.

I would think that the administrators in charge already had contacted the HOME SCHOOL and because they couldn’t handle the situation they ultimately knew that it was in their best interest to have the student arrested. So sickening to see poor admin again and again at the BOCES. Maybe? The home schools shouldn’t send students where they are going to get arrested because an administrator can’t perform their job. These BOCES hide everything and maybe the School and DA will agree that the student should JUST RELINQUISH THEIR RIGHT TO ATTEND THE SCHOOL.

Elmer, you can’t blame the paper for passing along the SSPD press releases. I don’t disagree that the SSPD has a serious Chicken Little problem, but that’s not on the paper. That comes back to poor leadership and a lack of accountability in the Public Safety department in general, and too many elected officials in other departments happy to take the Public Safety union money to look the other way.

@hello.internet – the SSPD don’t care about what she actually did, they only care about what they can accuse her of doing. The gap between charges filed by the SSPD and what’s actually prosecuted is enormous. When Public Safety writes up their yearly report, they give us the arrest numbers – complete with all the big and scary Misdemeanors and Felonies they cook up to try and justify a bigger budget. In reality, hardly any of them are handled that way in court. It’s just a big show. Sadly, in this case, it seems they might be toying with a young woman’s life and future in their little game.

Very, very scary, if this is the same prosecutor who gave the go ahead for the arrest that is going to try to be a judge in SARATOGA COUNTY. It is actually disturbing, and sick that our great NY is now run by cowards who only care about themselves and have actually never truly served their country. It is very easy to make a false call against a 16 year old girl, this was not handled appropriately. It almost seems she is thought of as guilty before it’s even proven in court. Our great countrymen are definitely rolling in their graves with this kind of creepy justice. I can say this isn’t the country I love, these are nasty, nasty people that have no place in our justice system! What a joke of a law by the way, and to associate a young HS students comments with this is sickening. USS COLE represent.